A lawn mower, also referred to as a grass mower, is used to mow a weed of a footpath in the fields, bottom weed of the forest or pasture grass. There are two types of the lawn mower, one is an arm coupling type and the other is a direct acting type. As for the arm coupling type, a cutter is attached to one end of an operation arm and a power source is attached to the other end of the operation arm. On the other hands, as for the direct acting type, a cutter is directly attached to an axis of a power source. These lawn mowers use either an engine or an electric motor as the power source.
As the lawn mower which uses the electric motor as the power source, as shown in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 5-2620, the direct acting type lawn mower, where an electric motor is attached to a tip of an operation arm, and a cutter is directly attached to a shaft of the electric motor, is mainly used.
As the lawn mower which uses the engine as the power source, the arm coupling type lawn mower, as shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-8054, where a cutter is attached to one end of an operation arm and an engine is attached to the other end of the operation arm, is mainly used.
Examples of the arm coupling type lawn mowers include, but are not limited to, a carrying type lawn mower in which an engine is carried on the back puck mount, a shoulder type lawn mower in which a loop-like belt is attached to the operation arm for shoulder-carrying and a handle type lawn mower in which a handle, either looped or two-handed type, is attached on the operation arm for manipulation.
The lawn mower which has the electric motor as the power source can be used where a commercial power supply outlet is placed close to the place of use. It is necessary to use an electric generator when the lawn mower with the electric motor is used where there is no power supply outlet.
In contrast, the lawn mower which has the engine as the power source has the advantage that it can be used even if there is no power supply outlet close to the place of use. However, engine noise at the time of work is louder than a motor drive.
Thus, the lawn mower which has the electric motor as the power source does not generate a loud noise, however, the place where the lawn mower is used is limited to around a house. For this reason, it is not suitable for mowing work on a footpath in fields where there is no supply outlet.
In contrast, the lawn mower which has the engine as the power source can be used even if there is no power supply outlet close to the working place for mowing weeds and grass, however, when mowing work is carried out in the city, the noise problem may bother the neighbors.
For those reasons, the user has to select one of the lawn mowers between the lawn mower having the engine power source and the lawn mower having the electric motor power source according to the use environment.